Media content corresponds to still images, segments of audio media, video media, or audio/visual (AV) media and include information that is embodied, stored, transmitted, received, processed, or otherwise used with at least one medium. Common media content formats include FLV format (flash video), Windows Media Video, RealMedia, Quicktime, MPEG, MP3, DivX, JPEGs, and Bitmaps. As used herein, the terms “media clips”, “media content,” “information content,” and “content” may be used interchangeably.
Media content is produced, processed, and transmitted to consumers. However, subsequent to production, the processing, and/or transmitting may result in quality degradation of the media content. Accordingly, broadcasters today are continuously challenged with balancing the number of human operators against the number of artificial processes utilized for Quality Control (QC) as well as the continuous monitoring of media content as the media content is being broadcast to consumers. This challenge is due to the fact that many networks and operators today are also consolidating their operations as well as expanding their programming availability across a diverse range of mediums while controlling their costs to do so. Many broadcasters have come to rely on some type of process (or processes) to ensure that content meets their own (often subjective) criteria both before being aired (e.g., during QC) and while being aired. The processes generally include QC checks at many different steps along the chain from production to broadcasting and may involve a human operator verifying the quality at each of the steps.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. Similarly, issues identified with respect to one or more approaches should not assume to have been recognized in any prior art on the basis of this section, unless otherwise indicated.